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School is Just a Few Weeks Away!

It is hard to believe that we have been out of school for seven weeks! Summer is flying by! In only a month we will begin the 2017-2018 school year, and we are working feverishly to make preparations for the start of another successful year at all of our facilities and here at central office.

We made significant improvements to the experiences and opportunities that we provided to our students who are attended classes this summer. Our elementary school students benefitted from a project based approach that supported core content with engaging activities-including the use of robots! This allowed students to learn by being actively involved in their academic experience-a far cry from what most of us think about when we hear the words “summer school”.

Students in the middle school “made their mark” this summer with inter-disciplinary, project-based activities focused on creative writing and math to provide them with a head start in preparation for the beginning of next year. This year’s class published their first ever edition of the student newspaper that incorporated all of the concepts learned this summer!

A re-imagined program at the high school, including a blended approach of teacher directed and virtual instruction, resulted in tremendous success rates. I am proud of our students who have put forth tremendous effort this summer! Thank you, also, to our dedicated staff for seeking strategies to provide our students with a deeper and richer academic experience this summer!

There is a lot of work that takes place as we close one school year and open another. Our custodians and maintenance staff are beautifying our halls and campuses, while our administrative staff makes final staffing, scheduling, and programmatic decisions. Thank you to all of our talented employees for the work that you do to ensure that everything will be ready for our teachers and students in August.

This past week, Dr. Steve Geyer, Assistant Superintendent, shared our innovative approach to supporting our teachers with flexibility in licensure requirements to School Board members and Superintendents from across the Commonwealth at the Virginia School Boards Association Conference on Education. Several of our talented teammates have taken the initiative to plan a full day immersive experience exploring Scrum as a framework for scaffolding project-based learning and teamwork in an academic setting. We will be hosting educators from around the region on August 3 at this exciting event.

Mark your calendars for the many different events that will be taking place as we prepare for the start of school: